What birds (are you/have you been) watching? What birds have been watching you?

[Padraig]

Today's TMS (Times Diary) reminds us of the St Custard's nature walk in Down with Skool! [Geoffrey Willans/Ronald Searle], in which, seeing a little robin, the teacher tells his class: "There is no need to burst into tears, Fotherington-Tomas, swete tho he be. Nor to buzz a brick at it, Molesworth 2".

I half remember a poem by W H Davies about a robin, but I can't find it. It was not complimentary. Anybody?

[vinteuil]

... this one?

Robin on a leafless bough,
Lord in Heaven, how he sings!
Now cold Winter's cruel Wind
Makes playmates of withered things.

How he sings for joy this morn!
How his breast doth pant and glow!
Look you how he stands and sings,
Half-way up his legs in snow!

If these crumbs of bread were pearls,
And I had no bread at home,
He should have them for that song;
Pretty Robin Redbreast, Come.

[vinteuil]

... or this?

The cold, ice-sucking Wind has gone,
The air breathes quietly;
The Rain has come, as warm as spray
That sprinkles ships at sea.

And I remember how I woke,
Before my time to rise,
And heard a Robin and a Thrush
Cheering the winter skies.

Now when my Summer fails to shine,
And skies are cold and grey -
I'll let my Memory warm her hands
At this fine winter's day.

[Padraig]

Thank you vinteuil, but neither of those.
I collected it by hand ( ! ) when I was a student in the 50s, for potential use in the classroom, and I remember selecting it for its alternative attitude, which I later found out was not far from the reality of of raw nature. It was intended for older pupils and dealt with the robin as a vicious little murderer. I never used it, and it languishes in a handwritten anthology somewhere......I know it is not called The Robin, or similar, and Google has not helped. Did I dream it?

[Vox Humana]

I have just been spending a fair amount of time over the last few days sitting in a static caravan by the side of a Scottish lochan, sipping a fine single malt and watching a Slavonian Grebe nest just 50 yards the other side of the window. It doesn't come better than that. That said, a point-blank photoshoot yesterday with two or three quite unusually obliging Ring Ouzels around the top car park at Cairn Gorm ran it a pretty close second. I spotted forty species out of our caravan window, including two Ospreys, which, unfortunately, didn't stop to fish. Being in filthy, dirty twitcher mode, I also visited the Ythan Estuary where the usual drake King Eider was unobligingly spending most of its time asleep and very distantly at that. The rest of the Eider flock was more entertaining. I much enjoyed the many terns there: Mostly Arctic and Sandwich, but also one or two Common and Little Terns. Crested Tits in Speyside were virtually impossible, but on the last evening I did eventually find one at Rothiemurchus. I never did see any crossbills and all I got at the Findhorn Valley was a Dipper and a pair of sore feet.

[vinteuil]

Thank you vinteuil, but neither of those.

... what about this?



LINES TO A SPARROW

What shall we call thee mouse o' the air,
To raid our buds, make our trees bare,
To rob the sunlight of its grain,
More mischievous than April's rain ;
To rob our orchards, and to knock
Young blossoms down, to spoil and pock
Nature's fair face, in spite and wrath
As he, thy brother of the earth,
Who creeps at night time slyly forth
To tear our satins, silks, and what
He cannot munch makes wanton rot ?
Nay, not like him art thou, for he
Doth from his own poor shadow flee,
And is a fearsome wretch, to show
A guilt his conscience should not know ;
And so ridiculous his fear
That Innocence, without a tear
Delights to prison him ; but thou
Art guiltier than we will allow.
It is in wintry weather when
The robin turns a beggar, then
Jays, pigeons, steal the squirrel's store ;
But, when the winter's stress is o'er,
They are dishonourable no more
Yet thou art thief, despoiler ever,
Through sunny and through stormy weather.
Time was thou didst perform great work,
And slay slugs, bugs, and things that lurk
In pioneer's path ; of late
Thou hast incurred our mortal hate,
And we would hunt thee out of life
Were't not for such unequal strife ;
Our gins and traps, we must confess,
Are vain, and powder powerless ;
And all our cunning arts are vain,
The triumph thine, and ours the pain.
Man cannot shake thee off : as though
A billow reared and plunged to throw
The wind that on its arched crest
Jockeyed from shore to shore, and rest
Not for a moment gave e'en so
Thy triumph none can overthrow.
With all this fuss of thee, I doubt
Thou art all bad, as men make out ;
Not Cocky Sparrow, nor Jim Mouse,
O foolish man, that robs thy house :
If thou wouldst know what takes thy feed,
Set trap for hand of human greed ;
'Tis not that sparrows, mice are sly
On men who govern men keep eye.
Brown Sparrow, with us everywhere,
Go, multiply without a care :
When larks sing over fields unroamed,
And sealed woods by night are stormed,
Surrendering unto nightingales
When cuckoos call to hills from vales,
Thou, Sparrow mine, art here and near,
To find all times, come year, go year

[Padraig]

Most interesting tally V H. Hard to better from where I hardly ever wander. I have my usual daily quota of tits, finches and blackirds. The chaffinches seem to have founded a colony - lots of chicks on the ground, with young robins now in evidence. Lately I have had frequent visits from homing pigeons, sometimes up to eight of them - one quite tame with me but still a bit shy. They share with 2 woodpigeone and 2 doves, and yesterday all of the above were joined for a short time by a magpie, two jackdaws, a grey crow and an extra homing pigeon from a different loft. I had provided some ham bits and pieces. My favourites always make an appearance - the goldfinches, and I usually manage to spot a favourite wren frequently enough to know they're still around. My first thrush this year made an appearance, but it's not an established visitor. I intend venturing further afield some time, but for the moment I'm very pleased with the garden activity - and happily, no bunches of feathers for quite a while.

Just read your Sparrow poem vinteuil. I have no sparrows, and haven't had for a long time. Noisy little 'fellows' aren't they. I get the odd mouse though - had to extricate one recently from a feeder - he ate himself to death and got jammed inside - snout out one end, tail the other.

[vinteuil]

M

Just read your Sparrow poem vinteuil.

... ho, not mine! I was still delving in WH Davies for you to see if there were any robin references in poems of a more 'nature red in tooth and claw' kind.

Can't write pomes, meself

[Padraig]

... ho, not mine! I was still delving in WH Davies for you to see if there were any robin references in poems of a more 'nature red in tooth and claw' kind.

Can't write pomes, meself

O I bet you cld if you wantd to.

ps I'm digging into the lost heaps. I found a letter I wrote in 1995 resigning from a voluntary body. It was not in verse.

[Serial_Apologist]

It's been a very long time since any sparrows were last seen in this part of London. Rather as cockney is itself being replace by Jafaican in London, the cockney sparrow appears to be being replaced by the parakeets!

[gradus]

Lines to a Sparrow, a wonderful poem unknown to me previously, many thanks for posting it.

[Padraig]

ps I'm digging into the lost heaps

vinteuil, I found it in an old school notebook - not the written anthology I mentioned. It is called The Truth. It can be found here, near the bottom : The Song Of Life, 1920.

http://www.theglade.net/whdavies/whdavies.html

http://www.theglade.net/whdavies/the_song_of_life/the_truth.htm

I notice on reading the poem that in my own handwritten notebook I have, in the first stanza, 'Oft times since then their PIRATE lives'. My bad writing, or a better word?

[ardcarp]

A pair of busy robins have nested in our garden. Ruddy cat just brought in one of the fledglings.

[Padraig]

A pair of busy robins have nested in our garden. Ruddy cat just brought in one of the fledglings.

A red cat! Or, perhaps an orangey one - like the robins (allegedly).

[Dave2002]

I found what I thought was a young robin on the ground in our garden yesterday. It didn't seem to want to get off the ground, so I tried to get it into the bushes, but actually I failed, and I followed it around trying to get it to move and even managed to get my hand within an inch or two of it. A cat would have had no problems! Eventually it flew off in to my neighbour's garden - which may not be terribly good news as there's an old cat there. With luck that bird might learn that staying on the ground when possible predators are around is not a good strategy, otherwise it'll be curtains sooner, rather than later.